at the cat born from it's steam. the cat is in the bedroom now. muling. the cat is indecent and i whom trying to be tidy, i whom trying to do things the purpose way, i who am sick from the shedding. i, am undone. my lover who lives far away opens the door to my room and offers pastry in a basket spun from his vision. it is closely woven. the kind of container some women collect. i have seen these in many colors but the basket he brings is simple. only black. only nude. the basket he brings is full of sweet burdens and i eat even the crumbs. as am i have not dined for days.

my lover who lives far away opens the door to my room and offers tea made from the liquid he's crying. i do not want my lover crying and i am sorry i ever asked for tea. my lover, who lives far away opens the door to my room pretending he never cried. he offers tea and cold cakes. the tea is delicious. spiced like the start of our courtship. honeyed and warm. i drink every bit of the tea and put aside the cakes. my lover who lives far away opens the door to my room like a man loving his strength. the lock i replaced this morning will not keep him away.

my lover who lives far away opens the door to my room and brings me nothing. perhaps he has noticed how fat i have grown indulged. perhaps he is poor and sick as emptying his store. it is no matter to me any longer he has filled me already so full. my lover who is far away opens the door to my room and tells me he is tired. i do not ask what he's tired from for my lover far away has already disappeared. the blankets are big with his body. the cat, under the covers because it is cold out and she is not stupid.

muse. >> thank you. [applause]. >> please welcome mr. douglas kaerny. [applause] >> how many know the song living in the city by stevie wonder. that great skit at end where stevie plays all the voices and gets arrested. new york city, skyscrapers and everything. this is a poem that reimagines that gentlemen exists the bus in that skit as john henry. this is a section of it. skyscrapers and everything. j hammer henry mallet [inaudible] could barely fit hammer poking out like natural man's skyscraper to the concrete for deep machine sleep abouts

income. don't go john henry traffic man, don't go across that street. the flood song poems were poems written in reaction to katrina. how can i enter that space of writing poems about that. i'm not from there and don't have family there. who benefits from that tragedy? who benefits from that disregard for humanity and the thought animals would benefit from that. this first poem is flood songs number 4 mosquitoes drinking didy. >> drink every hour next up this hour and every hour after. was born in the river there is enough to go around. drink every hour on the hour and every hour after. in the river there is enough to

go around. drink every hour. there is enough to go around. drink every hour and every hour after. go to the river there is enough to go around. drink up the hours and every after burned down by the river -- drink air land is here for after survivors go around they are enough. [applause] >> flood song 8 stray dogs duet. >> the every i learned. food. for the good. love. your hand smiled with me. you wanted me to understand you

with -- my teeth. hunger seemed the only -- tongue we shared. the sky -- opened. closed it's door. the sky -- opens, closes it's door. the sky -- hunger seems the only master. no, we both understand something like love. good doggie, good doggie what i do now. [applause] >> now you can feed pigeons and they know to go there to get food. sharks follow the ships because if you have humans packed and one gets sick you have to get rid of the sick one so it

doesn't get the others sick you 3 them over board and the sharks follow. slim chance for [inaudible] it samples parliament, little mermaid. ts eljot and robert haden. >> never learned to swim. but we sure can dive. over million ships -- over million ship. iowa woo. let your fish bones live old man. let your fish bones before man. make a wish the black fish there is company coming, coming. hammer heads ham or head until hammer fed company knocking. great white shark.

great white georgia no, no. they company dining, dining. [inaudible] can't remember, can't remember. there is company [inaudible]. and all know was a dark room cloud and gullets filled with [inaudible]. cattle, chattel, channel of the deep blue. see all about that dark moon cloud and the gullets full of water and slaughter. assault, assault oh , channel of the deep blue sea. sure no one will see. just look out the world around you right here on the ocean floor. such wonderful things around you what more is you looking for. rag ed claws scuffling across the seas. tell be thin, fine, attention

nigger mermaids, chains like hooks and sifrpgs are didy don't bleed into the sea the stains won't watch out we ain't responsible for your mess. the management. there is company, can't remember. there is company. the stains will not wash out. [applause] >> he wasn't dragged death in a quick casual way. they had fun with his body they chained him to the back of the car did fish tails. forensic evidence suggests his body came lose and some of the men confessed and rechained him after rolling back over him to get him. most of us heard about this tragedy. something we don't hear is because dragged to death we

assume he was dragged like this. see that way chained to the truck it's not true. he was not dragged like that he was dragged like this. chained the back of the truck watching the road behind him. this poem is called big thicket jasper, texas. a crack is a buck shot. big thickel. crack, headlights staggering home. the road kills. crack, big thicket. the sticks, drink, drink, headlight stagger in the road. creek, crack, stick broke light kills. big thickel. buck shot by the white headlights to big thicket. what you looking at. crack, the white stick big thicket along the trees. the buck is staggering home.

crack, we go to big thicket what you are doing here. break for home. on the road, go, go, crack, crack, crack, big thicket. headlights what you think you are. huff, is this, critic o crack, a stick broke. buck in the brushes. put them back on. what you think. in the rushes. put them back o. big thicket we go to creek. go to head staggers along the trees. crack, a stick broke the creek breaks big thicket we go, buck shot, home we go, go, big thicket. road kill. staggering bucks. headlight rushes. screeching. road screeching, what you what you. we go, we go. crack. bones. road kills a broke stick along

the staggering creek we go on. [applause] >> i will close with a poem from the book it's live evil. a name of a miles davis album we know that miles davis abused his wife. physically. pearl initially had mad at miles the reason this poem exist system because of that esan and the epigraphs that will ground it some more. quote, miles was guilt of self confessed violet crimes against women we should break his records and burn his cd's until he apologizes. the trumpet's mouth is apology. you just write a poem about your

need to do that a madual johnson. all right. live people. the pins point come downs on the butter fly. the knuckle come down on ms. sisly. the mallet come down on the cd case. wait! the mallet come down on the butter fly. the pins point come down on the ms. sisly. the knuckle come down on the cd case. wait! >> the knuckle come down on the buttir fly. the pins point come down on the cd case. dammit. the butter fly, ms. sisly the cd case. the roses rips at the spit much the phoenix dazzling petals

births something. the martir's smile that saves something. what did we make? listen to the butter fly, the pinpoint makes no sound sticking the [inaudible] no brass wail to the air here it's silent as a necktie this is not right. ms. sisly a cd case and a pin striped suit did he stick her lips red. i don't know, i don't know. sometimes he wore a pin striped 3 piece and a dazzling tie. i have a mallet did he kiss her. lips red. did he stick her with a pins point much listen to the brass ware and butter fly the plastic and silence breaks. this is a man thinking he can build with a mallet.

a martir with knuckles. this it is a man who through out the notes. wait. dammit, ms. sisly why won't you listen to the man who writes lynches. he had a mallet and the oils in the hands cripple the butter fly won't fly again so butter wait. butter stay. butter still. what have we made that awakes. stay still. listen to the song of a man in his sleeping shell. it come down it come down. the pinpoint, the knuckle, the mallet. wait a bit. no birthing. no saving. no feeding. dammit! >> listen to the song of a man who makes what have we made?

thank you. [applause]

>> foreign language speaking.

[applause]. >> foreign language speaking.

[applause]. >> foreign language speaking.

[applause]. >> foreign language speaking. w3

>> i am very happy to be here.

i feel very honored to have been asked to interpret this poem and make it a song. it's funny because something like two days before he asked me to do this, i was thinking to myself, i wonder what it would be like to write a song to the poetry. the reason i love the poem that we chose is because everything that i love in this poem, it's different, but, it has this magic in it and it's what you heard in spanish. of unexpected and beautiful things being placed next to each other in a way that surprises you and makes you

realize life is always magical. here it is. [music] >> this is the way the world is, my dear, my dear. well, today i have to think the world as a whole. that i have to come from the